


watching airplanes

by anakatieskywalker



Category: Green Lantern (Comics), Green Lantern - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types, The Flash (Comics), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Barry Allen and Hal Jordan are Roommates, Barry and Hal have an unbreakable bond, College, College Roommates, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Jessica Jordan was a piece of shit, believe it or not this was edited, oh my god they were roommates, they are BROS and i love them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:47:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29523846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anakatieskywalker/pseuds/anakatieskywalker
Summary: Hal returned to Coast City after his first year of college and didn't exactly get the warm welcome home he'd been expecting. Barry's there to help him pick up the pieces.
Relationships: Barry Allen & Hal Jordan
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	watching airplanes

**Author's Note:**

> all you really need to know going into this is that Hal and Barry are roommates at Central City University.

Hal had been drinking a lot, in the hours since his mother abandoned him to the world. Sure, Hal was eighteen, and pretty much did everything on his own anyway, but to go back to Coast City for break and find strangers living in their house hurt more than he knew how to vocalize. 

It was almost like losing his father all over again, and maybe that’s what made Hal do it.  Made him call Barry and get the only person that seemed to care that Hal Jordan was alive out to Coast City. To his friend’s credit, Barry had gotten there fast, faster than Hal had thought possible, and it made him wonder if his friend realized, just as he had, that Hal Jordan was hanging from a precipice. 

If he was honest, there wasn’t much that Hal remembered of the day, as he waited for Barry to come. And then there they were, the two of them sitting on the roof of the shitty motel Hal had managed to find, a pack of beer sitting between them, eyes turned towards the stars, and the airport. That was the thing he’d always loved most about Coast, watching airplanes take off and come home. Wondering who was on them and what their stories were, or what that new jet was going to be used for once approved, while watching it paint the sky. 

Now, with another parent gone, Hal found Barry Allen sitting next to him facing that same airport that has always seemed to be the center of life itself for the young Jordan. He was watching planes take off with the roommate he’d only known for nine months, and grew to like within the last six. 

And somehow, it was fitting, Hal’s spent most of his life looking up at the sky and chasing dreams of being like a man long gone, and even when his mother leaves him, he’s still staring at the sky.

It was fitting, and it got him talking.

“I was there, you know. I wasn’t supposed to be at the airfield that day, but it was the one thing my dad liked sharing with me. She was mad at us that morning, I don’t remember what about, but they’d fought the night before.” Hal’s voice sounded almost foreign to his own ears, and Barry was watching him with eagle eyes.

He could still remember it with perfect clarity, sometimes even waking in the middle of the night, sure that it had just happened and he could still smell the smoke. Not that he’d told anybody over the years, everyone in Coast had known about the crash.

“It was just another test flight, but I was out of school for some reason, and my parents were not the kind to keep a babysitter on retainer.” Hal’s jaw clenched, and he took another swig of his beer. He wanted something stronger, but his fake ID only worked so well. 

He looked up at the sky, the same one that he’d last watched his father streak across. The sky that Hal himself was desperate to be a part of, “No one at the base remembered that I was there until it was too late. And then someone packed me into a car and took me to my mom.” 

Silence fell, and Hal knew Barry was searching for something to say, trying to decide if that was what Hal needed. He tore his eyes off the sky, and looked out towards the road. The road that Hal’s own mother probably took to get out of this town, months before her son came looking. There were people out there that had no idea who Hal Jordan was, what had happened to his father, and how his mother had fallen apart.

“She couldn’t even look at me. She said I was just too much like him.” 

The days and weeks after the crash had been the hardest, Hal had been desperate for someone to comfort him, and Jessica Jordan didn’t really know how to be that kind of mother.

“Hal,” Barry’s voice closed the gap between them as his hand came to rest on Hal’s shoulder. He sagged under the weight of his friend’s hand like it was the weight of the world.

He let out a wry snort, “And now I’m really alone. At least she doesn’t have to look at me anymore.”

“Hal.” The tone was sharp now, and it pulled Hal out of his misery a little bit. “Hal, look at me.”

Something about Barry’s voice actually got Hal to do as he said, it felt more like an order than anything else Barry Allen had ever said to him. His hand squeezed Hal’s shoulder, “You’re not alone. Okay? You’ve got me. And I might not know much, I mean… my family is a mess, but I know one thing: she doesn’t deserve you, Hal Jordan. Your mom is an idiot, and we don’t need her. You’ve got me.”

For a brief moment, Barry could see the whirlwind of emotions going on behind Hal’s eyes, and then a mask of indifference fell and he shuttered his feelings to the world. Hal got up and paced the length of the roof behind Barry for a few minutes, and the other man was forced to watch as Hal mentally ripped apart all of the expectations he had about his life.

A snort left Hal as he suddenly came to a halt, looking off into the distance, back to that godforsaken airport that changed his life in so many ways starting at a young age, to avoid meeting Barry’s eyes again.

“She made me promise, after my Dad died, she made me promise that I wouldn’t become a pilot. She asked me to give up whatever it was that he had been teaching me to chase after up there. God, it was the only thing I ever liked, but I agreed.” Barry could see the scowl forming on Hal’s profile, as sure as watching storm clouds on the horizon, “She wanted me to keep my feet on the ground, live a long life, and not die like him.”

The beer can in Hal’s hand crumpled under the pressure of his fist, before he chucked it off the building as hard as he could. It landed somewhere near the edge of the parking lot below them with a clatter. Back at the airport another plane took off into the night sky, destination unknown.

“Fuck her.”

**Author's Note:**

> leave a comment and let me know what you think! or come yell at me on tumblr at haljordangreenjedi :)


End file.
